Customer Reviews

Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness and the Search For Meaning

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Once again, Jean Shinoda Bolen has gifted us with her rich understanding of the human condition. In this book, she explores the psychological and spiritual value of death, profound loss, and illness without in any way minimizing the pain, angusih, and grief that come with these times in our loves. Bolen's book gives us a way to grapple with these passages on a deep spiritual, personal level, without turning to religious platitudes or what, for many, may feel like true-believer gloss overs. Instead, dying, illness, and loss are presented as psychological as well as physical events that resonate with rich personal and spiritual meaning and transformation, if we can allow them to do this. A wonderful book!

This book is unlike any other I have read. The author is a Jungian analyst and clinical professor of psychiatry. To quote the book jacket, she "weaves myth, experience, and story to produce a book which at once illuminates the experience of the seriously ill patient and shows that facing one's mortality can be a life-transforming, and even a life-saving process". At a time when I was recovering from life-threatening illness myself, I heard the author speak at a lecture in Vancouver, and I found her use of classical myth as an allegory for illness to be quite effective. My friend Russell borrowed this book from me a few weeks before he died from cancer, and in a written note he described it as "the right book at the right time".

Early in this beautiful book, Jean Shinoda Bolen reminds us that the Chinese pictograph for "crisis" contains the ideograms for both "danger" and "opportunity." I've worked with clients who deal with life-threatening illness, and it is almost invariably true that this experience raises important "soul-evoking" questions. To explore those questions is inevitably healing, whether in body, spirit, or both.

As with any major crisis in life, we can either view the glass as half-empty, or see the gift that we are offered: the opportunity to re-examine our priorities, our relationships, and to do the soul-work that brings true meaning to life. Illness forces us to deal with "what we know in our bones" that we may have so far denied -- ways in which we are unhappy and/or self-destructive.

And those of us who do not have life-threatening illness can learn from those who do. As Bolen points out, "Life is a terminal condition, after all." So we can all benefit from answering the questions she poses: "What are we here for... What did we come to learn... What and who did we come here to love?"

As a businesswoman seeking to ensure that the daily demands of running a successful organization do not impede my ability to live a life of integrity, I seek to read books that inspire me to find joy in daily living. As I read this book, I was in awe of the stories of the survivors who have found life that much more as a result of their experiences in dealing with terminal illness. I applaud Dr. Bolen's wisdom in sharing the challenges that make a healthy person realize how weak we are in comparison to these heroes who live so richly in spite of events. I found the book a great joy and, in fact, am reading it again - just in case I missed something the first time. I am positioning myself to "recreate" myself in a 2nd career and this book inspired me to think of using my skills in some way to assist women who find themselves dealing with their own terminal illness or the illness of a loved one.

Close to the Bone is an absolute blessing for anyone going through a life-threatening illness and a saving grace for those who love and support that person. Dr. Bolen goes deeply into the psychological and spiritual components of a challenging illness and brings the light and warmth of understanding and compassion. Her use of mythological stories is brilliant and will change the way you look at a hospital stay.

If you are sitting by the bed of a loved one, this is the book you should have near at hand.

This book is poorly written and not worth the money. Too much time spent on vague ideals and notions of death and dying not enough substance. Dr. Bolen spends very little time sharing the actual patient's stories and too much time on the New Age doctrine she so voraciously clings to. A New Age sermon is what this book is, not a search for meaning during life-threatening illness.